This day in history

► Today’s birthdays: Actor Chris Robinson is 71. Actress Elke Sommer is 69. Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski is 69. Singer Art Garfunkel is 68. Actor-playwright Sam Shepard is 66. Singer Peter Noone is 62. Actor Nestor Serrano (“24’’) is 54. Actress-comedian Mo Gaffney is 51. Actor Robert Patrick is 51. Singer Bryan Adams is 50. Actress Tilda Swinton is 49. Actress Tatum O’Neal is 46. Actress Andrea McArdle is 46. Rock singer Angelo Moore (Fishbone) is 44. Actress Judy Reyes is 42. Rock musician Mark Hunter (James) is 41. Actor Sam Rockwell is 41. Country singers Jennifer and Heather Kinley (The Kinleys) are 39. Actor Corin Nemec is 38. Rock musician Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) is 38. Country singer-musician Ryan Adams is 35. Actor Jeremy Lelliott is 27. Rock musician Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 22.

► In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft.

► In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican Wendell L. Willkie.

► In 1946, Republicans captured control of both the Senate and the House in midterm elections.

► In 1968, Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.

► In 1974, Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.

► In 1999, US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson declared Microsoft Corp. a monopoly, saying the software giant’s aggressive actions were “stifling innovation’’ and hurting consumers. (Jackson later ordered Microsoft broken up into two companies, but the Justice Department subsequently said it was no longer seeking a breakup.) Pope John Paul II began his first visit to India in 13 years.

► In 2004, the Kremlin announced that Russia had given final approval to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. In a surprise reversal, the Chilean army for the first time assumed institutional responsibility for widespread human rights violations during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

► In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama selected hard-charging Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel to be White House chief of staff. A case of postelection nerves on Wall Street sent the Dow industrials plunging nearly 500 points.